Tracking Offline Purchases

Retailers and e-retailers alike are continually looking for ways to maximize their ad expenditures. While online advertising accounts for one-third of marketing dollars, on the whole, less than 10 percent of total retail sales actually occur online (according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau).

This makes it difficult for companies like Google that are heavily invested in online advertising to justify their services to offline retailers. Although their service can provide a very comprehensive online profile of the consumer based on cookies and phone location data, bridging the gap between online advertising and offline purchases has been challenging.

But Google recently announced some changes to Google AdWords that will allow retailers to import transactions into their system and correlate them to a user’s browsing history using an email address. The e-commerce giant estimates that it will be able to link up to 70 percent of brick-and-mortar transactions with online exposure, giving advertisers a better idea of which ads are converting into physical sales, and allowing them to fine-tune their marketing campaigns.

All of this, of course, raises privacy concerns for the consumer. Android users in particular have demonstrated their aversion to advertising and tracking by switching off these features. Ultimately, the balance between privacy and personalization of content will be in the hands of the users.